Ranil Wickremesinghe, prime minister and finance minister of Sri Lanka, during an interview in Colombo on May 25, 2022.
Buddhismka Weerasinghe | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
Sri Lankan lawmakers selected six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as president on Wednesday to succeed the ousted leader who fled the country in a vote that risks sparking political unrest. in this troubled South Asian island nation.
He said he spent 45 years of his life in Congress and is happy that it has earned him the honor of being president. “I don’t have to tell you what state our country is in. Now that the election is over, we have to end this division. We’ve had 48 hours to stay divided but from from now on, I am ready for dialogue with you,” he said, asking other political parties to work with him.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May, hoping to bring stability to a country mired in the worst economic crisis in memory. Wickremesinghe became acting president after Rajapaksa fled the country last week and resigned via email.
Wickremesinghe, 73 years old, is a seasoned politician with extensive experience in foreign and diplomatic affairs. But he was unpopular with voters, who saw him as the power holder of the Rajapaksa government. Protesters outside the president’s residence chanted “Go home, Ranil” after his election.
The vote by 134 lawmakers put Wickremesinghe ahead of former government minister Dullas Alahapperuma, who received 82 votes. The candidate of Marxism has three.
Wickremesinghe will serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024. Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned via email last week after protesters angered the country’s economic collapse stormed his official residence and took over important state buildings.
As president, Wickremesinghe now has full discretion to appoint a new prime minister.
Presidents in Sri Lanka are usually elected by the public. The responsibility rests with Parliament only if the presidency is vacated before the official term ends.
That had happened only once before in Sri Lanka when Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga was selected by the National Assembly in 1993 after former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, the father of the current opposition leader, was assassinated.
The economic crisis has left 22 million Sri Lankans struggling with shortages of essential items including medicine, fuel and food while the government negotiates a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. economic. And as a result, the political crisis has left worries about whether a new government will be able to fix the economy and appease public anger at politicians’ failures.
Taking on a dual role as finance minister, Wickremesinghe led key IMF negotiations. He has spoken weekly in Congress warning that the path out of the crisis will be difficult, while pledging to overhaul an increasingly centralized government under the president.
However, the public saw him as the holder of the Rajapaksa government that led the country into economic disaster.
Only a handful of lawmakers have publicly said they would vote for Wickremesinghe because of the hostility against him. Dozens of lawmakers loyal to Rajapaksa whose homes were burned by protesters in May are said to be backing Wickremesinghe with assurances that he will severely punish perpetrators and maintain law and order.
All 225 members of Parliament including speakers are eligible to vote by ranked choice ballot. Two members abstained and some votes were declared invalid.
